U.S. patent application number 10/934053 was filed with the patent office on 2006-04-06 for stroke and output limiter for positive displacement pump bottle.
Invention is credited to Nick E. Ciavarella, Lori A. May, Mark E. Rosenkranz, Andrew R. Spriegel.
Application Number | 20060071032 10/934053 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 36124548 |
Filed Date | 2006-04-06 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060071032 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Ciavarella; Nick E. ; et
al. |
April 6, 2006 |
Stroke and output limiter for positive displacement pump bottle
Abstract
A piston stroke limiter provided in association with a positive
displacement pump bottle has a piston restriction clip that may be
selectively secured to the piston of the positive displacement
pump. The height of the clip limits the stroke of the pump so that
less fluid is dispensed from the positive displacement pump bottle
than would be dispensed if the clip were removed. A protective
overcap is provided in preferred embodiments to protect portions of
the positive displacement pump during shipping.
Inventors: |
Ciavarella; Nick E.; (Seven
Hills, OH) ; May; Lori A.; (Uniontown, OH) ;
Rosenkranz; Mark E.; (Parma, OH) ; Spriegel; Andrew
R.; (Avon, OH) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Ray L. Weber;Renner, Kenner, Greive, Bobak, Taylor & Weber
Fourth Floor
First National Tower
Akron
OH
44308-1456
US
|
Family ID: |
36124548 |
Appl. No.: |
10/934053 |
Filed: |
September 3, 2004 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
222/321.7 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G01F 11/06 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
222/321.7 |
International
Class: |
G01F 11/06 20060101
G01F011/06 |
Claims
1. A positive displacement pump bottle comprising: a bottle holding
fluid to be dispensed; a positive displacement pump communicating
with said fluid, said positive displacement pump including a piston
capped with a piston head, wherein said piston and piston head are
biased so that said piston head and a portion of said piston extend
externally of said bottle and are movable against said bias toward
said bottle to dispense fluid according to the distance that said
piston head travels against said bias; and a piston stroke limiter
including: a piston restriction clip secured to said bottle and
selectively clipped to said piston external of said bottle to
restrict the distance that said piston head may travel against said
bias.
2. The positive displacement pump bottle of claim 1, wherein said
piston restriction clip is removable secured to said bottle.
3. The positive displacement pump bottle of claim 2, wherein said
bottle includes an opening and a cap selectively covers said
opening; and said piston stroke limiter includes an attachment ring
that fits around said opening below said cap, and a strap that
secures said piston restriction clip to said attachment ring.
4. The positive displacement pump bottle of claim 1, wherein said
piston stroke limiter includes a cap collar and a protective
overcap that is connected to said cap collar through a frangible
connection, said protective overcap portion fitting over said
piston head thereby protecting said positive displacement pump
during shipping of the positive displacement pump bottle and
requiring removal thereof at said frangible connection in order to
employ said positive displacement pump.
5. The positive displacement pump bottle of claim 1, wherein said
piston stroke limiter includes a storage barrel that selectively
receives said piston restriction clip for storage thereof when not
selectively clipped to said piston.
6. The positive displacement pump bottle of claim 1, wherein said
piston stroke limiter includes multiple piston restriction clips,
each secured to said bottle to be selective clipped to said piston
to alter the distance that said piston head may travel against said
bias, each one of said multiple piston restriction clips providing
a different restriction of the distance that said piston head may
travel.
7. The positive displacement pump bottle of claim 6, wherein said
multiple piston restriction clips are provided as a stepped piston
restriction clip having stepped sections such that a given said
stepped section may be selectively clipped to said piston to
restrict by a desired increment the distance that said piston head
may travel.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention generally relates to positive
displacement pump bottles. More particularly, the present invention
relates to a positive displacement pump bottle that includes a
piston stroke limiter that serves, in use, to reduce the output of
the pump bottle by limiting the stroke length of the pump
piston.
[0002] Positive displacement pumps are generally known. With
reference to FIG. 1, it can be seen that a positive displacement
pump bottle is shown and designated by the numeral 10. Positive
displacement pump bottle 10 includes bottle 12 that holds the fluid
to be dispensed, and positive displacement pump 14 is threaded or
otherwise associated with bottle 12 through cap 15 at opening 16 at
threads 17. Positive displacement pump 14 includes pump mechanism
18 that, in a known manner, includes valves and biasing elements to
dispense the fluid within bottle 12 at spout 19 when piston head
20, on piston 22, is pushed downwardly (see arrow A) from its
biased extended position to the depressed position shown in phantom
in FIG. 1. As downward pressure is removed from piston head 20, the
biasing force urges it upward and fluid is drawn into tube 24 and
into pump mechanism 18 so that, when pressure is again applied to
piston head 18 in the downward direction, additional fluid may be
dispensed. The actual elements of pump mechanism 18, causing it to
work as described, are generally well known in many alternative
configurations, and the present invention is not limited to any
particularly type of pump mechanism 18 or positive displacement
pump 14, so long as fluid is dispensed from bottle 12 as generally
disclosed.
[0003] Positive displacement pump bottles such as pump bottle 10
have a number of uses, and they may be configured to dispense large
or small amounts of products in a given stroke. Herein it is to be
understood that the "stroke" is the distance that the piston head
20 portion of the positive displacement bottle pump is able to move
from its fully extended position to its fully depressed position.
Positive displacement pump bottles 10 are generally configured to
give a specific unit dose of fluid product per stroke. However,
different consumers might want different pump outputs for a given
fluid product, thus requiring positive displacement bottle pump
manufacturers to supply a number of different pump designs to
satisfy individual customer output demands. This leads to higher
inventory and higher cost products because of a loss of economies
of scale. Additionally, customers desire to have a means by which
the dose of fluid dispensed from a positive displacement pump
bottle may be selectively altered to dispense either a larger or
smaller amount of fluid as desired. Although this might be
accomplished by simply pushing down on the piston head to a lesser
extent (i.e., practicing a partial stroke), it is desirable that
the full stroke of the piston could be employed and yet differing
doses could be achieved.
[0004] During the shipping of positive displacement pump bottles,
it is easy for the piston and piston head to become damaged if a
pump bottle is dropped or otherwise jostled. Thus, there exists a
need in the art for means for protecting the piston head, piston,
and pump mechanisms of a positive displacement pump bottle,
especially during packaging and shipping.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] The present invention provides a positive displacement pump
bottle comprising a bottle holding fluid to be dispensed; a
positive displacement pump communicating with said fluid, said
positive displacement pump including a piston capped with a piston
head, wherein said piston and piston head are biased so that said
piston head and a portion of said piston extend externally of said
bottle and are movable against said bias toward said bottle to
dispense fluid according to the distance that said piston head
travels against said bias force; and a piston stroke limiter
including a piston restriction clip secured to said bottle and
selectively clipped to said piston external of said bottle to
restrict the distance that said piston head may travel against said
bias force.
[0006] In particularly preferred embodiments, a positive
displacement pump bottle is provided, as above, wherein the piston
stroke limiter further includes a storage barrel that allows the
piston restriction clip to be conveniently stored when not in use.
In other preferred embodiments, a protective cap is releasably
secured to the piston stroke limiter, over the piston and piston
head. In yet other embodiments, either multiple piston restriction
clips are provided or a single piston restriction clip provides
differing degrees of stroke limitation.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0007] For a complete understanding of the objects, techniques and
structure of the invention, reference should be made to the
following detailed description and accompanying drawings
wherein:
[0008] FIG. 1 is a cross section of a general depiction of a prior
art positive displacement pump bottle;
[0009] FIG. 2 is a positive displacement pump bottle including a
piston stroke limiter according to this invention;
[0010] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a piston stroke limiter
according to this invention;
[0011] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a positive displacement pump
bottle with a piston stroke limiter according to this invention
being employed thereon to limit the stroke of a positive
displacement pump;
[0012] FIG. 5 is a perspective view as in FIG. 4, but showing the
restriction clip of the piston stroke limiter in a stored
state;
[0013] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of
a piston stroke limiter according to this invention;
[0014] FIG. 7 is another alternative embodiment of a piston stroke
limiter according to this invention that does not employ a
protective cap;
[0015] FIG. 8A is a top view of yet another embodiment of a piston
stroke limiter according to this invention showing the concept of
employing multiple clip sizes for limiting the stroke of the
pump;
[0016] FIG. 8B is a side view of the embodiment of FIG. 8A; and
[0017] FIG. 9 is an alternative embodiment for providing multiple
clip sizes as in FIG. 8.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0018] The present invention provides a piston stroke limiter for a
positive displacement pump bottle, such as pump bottle 10. With
reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, a piston stroke limiter according to
this invention is shown and designated by the numeral 100. Piston
stroke limiter 100 is selectively secured to positive displacement
pump bottle 10 by cap 102 having protective overcap 104 secured to
cap collar 106 at breakable franges 108. Spout aperture 110 is
formed in protective overcap 104 so that piston stroke limiter 100
may be guided over spout 19 and secured to bottle 12 at opening 16
by fitting cap collar 106 over cap 15 (FIG. 1). Preferably, cap
collar 106 will fit over cap 15 through a snap fit.
[0019] Piston restriction clip 112 is secured to and held at a
distance from cap collar 106 by flexible strap 114. With reference
to FIG. 4, it can be seen that piston restriction clip 112 can be
secured to the base of piston 22, and, when snapped thereon,
physically limits the stroke of piston head 20 when piston head 20
contacts piston restriction clip 112, thus restricting the fluid
output. It would be appreciated that different height clips 112
could be employed either individually or together on the same
flexible strap 114 to limit the stroke of piston head 20 more or
less, as desired. Clip 112, snaps onto piston 22 and can be removed
at any time to allow for a full stroke and full fluid output.
[0020] As seen in FIG. 5, when full fluid output is desired, and
clip 112 is not to be employed, it may be stored on storage barrel
116, which is sized to receive clip 112 in a snap-on fashion.
[0021] With reference to FIG. 6, it can be seen that overcap 104 of
piston stroke limiter 100 may take a different shape, shown therein
as overcap 104' on a limiter 100; with like parts receiving like
numerals. This overcap 104', which has a squared or rectangular
cross section, is easier to manufacture, and provides a better grip
for breaking breakable franges 108.
[0022] In FIG. 7, an alternative embodiment of a piston stroke
limiter is shown and designated by the numeral 200. Therein, like
parts have received like numerals, but cap 102 is not provided.
Rather, flexible strap 214 extends from ring 218. A plurality of
teeth 220 extend radially inwardly from ring 218 so that ring 218
may be placed around the neck of a bottle opening (such as opening
16) and be held in place. A cap (e.g., cap 15) of a positive
displacement pump (e.g., pump 14) would be threaded onto opening 16
to further secure ring 218.
[0023] In FIG. 8, another embodiment of a piston stroke limiter is
shown and designated by the numeral 300, and like parts to limiter
200 receive like numerals but increased by 100. In this embodiment,
piston restriction clip 312 is stepped, providing multiple levels
of piston stroke limitation. In this embodiment, clip 312 has
first, second, and third clip sections 330A, 330B, 330C,
respectively, each of a different height, with the height
increasing, in steps, from the distal section 330A to the section
330C proximate flexible strap 314. Clip 312 thus provides a stepped
side 332 and a flat side 334, and would be placed on the piston of
a positive displacement pump with the flat side 334 facing upwardly
to be the surface with which the piston head makes contact.
[0024] In FIG. 9, yet another embodiment is shown as limiter 400,
with like parts having like numerals but in the 400 range. Here,
multiple clips 412A, 412B, 412C are provided coming off of strap
414. Each clip 412A, 412B, 412C is of a different height to provide
differing levels of stoke limitation.
[0025] Although specific embodiments have been shown herein, this
invention is not to be limited to or by such embodiments, and it
should be appreciated that aspects of one embodiment may be
incorporated into another. For example, although the multiple clip
embodiments show a ring and teeth collar configuration, the
protective overcap and cap collar may be practiced with a multiple
clip embodiment. Thus, while a full and complete description of the
invention has been set forth in accordance with the dictates of the
Patent Statutes, it should be understood that modifications can be
resorted to without departing from the spirit hereof or the scope
of the appended claims.
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